It's The Thought That Counts
by Cryssy-miu
Summary: In appreciation and love for everything Fluttershy has done for him, Discord makes her a gift. However, something from the spirit of chaos is going to be all but successful. R


_(This is a role play with my friend Miccha, and it's based off "Broken Spirit" (the original Fluttershy reforming Discord story, I guess XD), but I guess it could be based off "Keep Calm And Flutter On" too I suppose. Anyway, enjoy, and prepare for your heart to take a heart attack on you from it's cuteness. NOT a pairing, but those that read my fic should know who he has eyes for. XD_

_I loved "Keep Calm And Flutter On", but no matter what I do, I think I'll always end up writing and drawing things from "Broken Spirit", because a world without feather dusters, "Flutter-Butter", and Fluttershy's mothering and Discord being with Celestia just does not exist to me. XD)_

* * *

"Splendid! It worked! Two batches paper and one batch glue!" A pause. "Or was it one batch paper and two batches of glue? Or maybe something more mathematical and boring, like three-fourths glue and a handful of paper? Ugh, no. Like I would spend time thinking of something with so many numbers- DRAT! I forgot!"

Why, oh, why did Discord have to do something out of the goodness of his apparently existing heart? After slaving over such a preciously gag-worthy project as a paper mache replica of Fluttershy for her scrapbook, every day seemed more and more frustrating. Wasn't he giving enough of himself?! It was all by his claws! Granted, he had to rip out pages from Twilight's manuscripts to get the right consistency of paper, but it was for a good cause. At least it was enough to keep the unicorn from goring him once she found out who had been yanking out sections of her precious novels. Sacrifices were sacrifices, he had told her. It was a wonder he dodged that stampede at all.

"Re-pasting the mane, take two," he mumbled, hand sinking back into the pasty patch of pink parchment.

It was another few minutes of tedious tearing, strips of texts being soaked and plastered on the lumpy mass that could have resembled the guardian. Every so often, the spirit turned to glance at the side of the door, watching for any sign of rosette or butter-yellow. He had to keep a close eye out for the pegasus. If she walked in and saw what he had been working on for the past few weeks, the surprise would be ruined. The spirit had worked far too hard with what little unsupervised time he had to get caught now!

Fluttershy was out taking care of her garden, that thankfully had returned its flora status after she threatened Discord with the worst feather dusting in the world if he transformed these flowers into anything delicious. These were rare, Ruby Moon Petals, which had been imported all the way from Saddle Arabia, and the pegasus intended on keeping them alive and pretty.

She was pleased to note the spirit had listened to her, but it didn't take much convincing when she gave him the "Mom" tone. She didn't care if he turned her entire garden into a candy factory, just as long as these were left untouched.

Surprisingly, her little Discord hadn't done any chaos lately, that she had seen. The pegasus had no idea why. He barely left the cottage, which was concerning to her considering how much he loved the outdoors and treated it as his playground (although anything was).

Every time the little pony had gone to check on him, Angel (who was in on Discord's surprise) always managed to distract her away from it. Things in the cottage never looked different, so she was never worried.

Wiping the sweat off her brow, the little pony smiled and looked down at Angel. "All done weeding."

Discord's tongue peeked out of his clenched jowls as he pressed a squishy ball of glue on top of the messy mountain of pink. "Hm..." His head tilted upside-down, squinting at every angle. _I guess that DOES look like her head. If she was walking through a fun house mirror. _Beggars couldn't be choosers. It was hard enough being as talented as he was at everything else; sculpture was not among those accomplishments.

A claw lifted, and he smoothed down the sticky patches, a grin splitting his lips as it began to take form. He just needed a few more strips of paper and he'd-

Suddenly, an itching formed in his arms, slowly traveling up his curling fingers. They began to clench and twitch, a spark of magic bursting from his talons.

"Oh, oh no..." Discord croaked, ears falling flat as he tried to pull away, the sparks beginning to grow. But his feet wouldn't listen, and the spirit's arms stayed where they were, pinned by an inconsolable urge that rushed over his form, a lingering hunger for chaos starting to burst forth.

Chaos magic wasn't like most; it couldn't be contained for long, and with its neglect in Discord's hurried attempt to finish his project, it had reached its peak of breaking. This is what made not going out of control so hard. It was physically difficult to contain his magic, though luckily he got by with little pranks here and there to keep it from going berserk. If he did something to the sculpture now, there's no way he'd be able to control his magic enough to fix it.

"Nonono, not here! Not now!" The draconequus watched as his fingers curled together, eyes wide in horror. "No-!"

A burst of light, and the spirit hopped back, watching the statue begin to crack and crumble, shards of yellow and pink falling to the ground. The crunching sound of magic encircled the rest of it, squeezing like a powerful hug. A hug that reduced weeks of hard work into a pile of soggy, crunchy paste and parchment.

The spirit stared, the itching receding. A horrible feeling took its place. Filled his chest. His limbs began to tremble again, face contorting as an even greater emotion spread through him, replacing the pride, the instinctive giddiness that came with snapping his fingers to watch the show.

Anger.

"WHY?! WHY?!" he shouted, tail lashing forward and slamming into the pile of mush. It splattered wetly across the walls, tail coated in thick goop that slung around as he stomped, ears pinning back. "STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! I. CAN'T. DO. ANYTHING. RIGHT!"

Fluttershy heard a slam, and she squealed, startled. Angel let out an audible squeak as well, whipping around to look back at the cottage. Just _what_was that idiot doing in there?

The baby bunny hopped frantically to the window and wriggled his little face up, pressing it against the glass. He gawked at the damage, and visibly several things that Discord had shattered in his anger. Oh, Fluttershy was not going to be pleased. Nope, that spirit was in trouble with a capital "T", and possibly an inability to sit for at least a week.

"Angel, what is it?!" The pegasus raced into the cottage, and the baby bunny had no time to stop her this time. She skidded to a stop the moment she stepped through the door, and stared around in shock.

Some sort of goopy mess lay at Discord's feet, as did a lamp, a vase, and a table turned onto its side. She should be angry. She should march right over there and yank that brat onto his bed and chain him there before he could damage anything else, but something told the girl not to be angry.

Perhaps it was the way he was uncontrollably shaking.

"...Sweetie?"

Discord whirled around, the sound of his guardian's voice making his panic return. He had to hide the surprise! Then reality crashed back down and the spirit's grimace deepened. What surprise? He ruined it.

His gaze returned to see the pegasus, though her appearance seemed a bit blurry to him. Perhaps he needed glasses, he mused, despite knowing what the warm drip of tears falling down his cheeks really was. Oh, by Chaos, he was never going to live this down. He just needed to suck it up, look at Fluttershy, and explain to her what happened in a calm, manly fashion.

Heartbroken scarlet met uncertain teal.

"I MESSED IT UP!" Discord wailed, claws clamping over his eyes as he sniffed angrily. "I... I couldn't help it! An-And I worked... so LONG on this! W-Weeks! Just... useless! I... I-I-!"

Fluttershy was sure she could hear her heart breaking and shattering to the pit of her stomach. Tears filled her eyes to the brim as she watched him break down. Even Angel looked on sadly at the spirit and gave a despondent sigh.

Reigning back her emotions-at least to keep from crying in front of him, the pegasus approached the spirit. She stepped in the wet, butter colored goop, and rosette...

Butter colored? Rosette?

"Oh...!" Instantly, the pony squeaked out a sob, her heart swelling with love for the creature before her. "Oh, sweetie..." She guided him gently to the couch with her, laying him back-down on her lap and nuzzling his face. "Shhh... It's okay..."

"No, it's n-not!" he cried out, head flopping against a cushion, the stream of tears sliding down his face instantly making the fabric damp. "I just wanted t... to m-make something! Anything! And... I-I can't even do that without... br-breaking it!"

"Now, now..." Fluttershy lovingly crooned as she kissed his snout and gently nudged her little snout against his eyelids to catch the tears. "It's all alright... Discord, you make lots of wonderful things. You always make up delicious milkshakes, a tuna...and strawberry souffle, and plenty of things we've done! I'm sure your gift was beautiful..."

"Y-You're SURE." The spirit's watery eyes stared up at her, brimming with despair. "You say that you're sure it... would have been..." A muffled squeak, and Discord snorted in a whimpering snarl. "And now you'll never know-!"

"That may be," the pegasus agreed with a nod, "But there's one thing I do know, and that, dear, is that you tried to make me a present, and that's enough to make me love you even more." She nuzzled her snout against the top of his head. "If that's at all possible."

Great. Just when he thought that he might have been gaining control over the waterfalls pouring out of his eyes, she had to say that.

"... Can... can I at least have a cookie for my hard work?" he murmured.

Oh, whatever was left of her heart broke there. She smiled lovingly and looked over at Angel. "Angel, please get me _five _cookies from the jar." She giggled when he perked. He was never allowed five cookies.

Despite the remaining ache lingering in his chest, even the draconequus had to remark on his good fortune. _Five cookies?! That's... four more than I usually get! I think! I can't really count at the moment! _His snout sniffled, also rising as he sniffed the air for the scent of the cookie jar's seal being uncapped, the sweet aroma of baked goods wafting over their forms.

Okay, maybe he could get through this.

The pegasus bundled him in her hooves, nuzzling her face against his face and handing him a pawful of cookies. "My poor baby, I think you deserve all the cookies in the world right now." She situated him in a half cradled position, beginning to gently groom at his face.

If there was anything that calmed him down it was a gentle face grooming.

The delicious cookies giving a satisfying crunch in his mouth, muffling his remaining, soft snuffles, coupled with the warm laps of a tongue grooming back his disheveled fur gave Discord a slightly better lift of spirits.

"Mmramk froo," he garbled out, swallowing another cookie with a tiny noise.

She continued licking his fur, soothing away the last of the tears and cleaning his messy fur from where the goo had splattered. Whatever the goo was was absolutely disgusting. She puckered her lips, pausing with a smirk when the spirit giggled.

She pressed her lips against his cheek and blew an affectionate raspberry.

"Ack!" A near-squeal of laughter escaped, the spirit nudging the pegasus away from his cheek, covering it as he eyed her, a smile lighting up his crooked face.

"That's my little spirit of chaos... "Grinning, the affectionate pony instead turned to his neck, blowing a hard raspberry against that as well.

"PFFFT-HAHAHAHA-A-A-A!" Discord flailed with a cackle, sadness draining away in ticklish bursts, the guardian continued assaulting him with love. "ST-STOP! I'M... I'M B-BETTER-HEHEHE!"

_She might not have a statue of herself,_ the spirit thought between hysterical fits of laughter. _But she's got a real me to admire for the rest of her days!_

And that seemed like a reward for both of them.


End file.
